My Leucistic Song Sparrow Sighting
My second gobsmack in a week occurred when I spotted a stunning leucistic Song Sparrow while driving slowly along the road at Farmington Bay WMA two days ago.
My second gobsmack in a week occurred when I spotted a stunning leucistic Song Sparrow while driving slowly along the road at Farmington Bay WMA two days ago.
I was tickled to photograph a molting immature Cedar Waxwing yesterday morning high in the Wasatch Mountains. The forest setting was quite messy.
On my most recent trip to Bear River MBR, I had a huge thrill. I found four baby Pied-billed Grebes still in their striped juvenile plumage in the marsh.
On my three recent trips up into the Wasatch Mountains I have been able to take Wild Turkey images on two of the chilly mornings.
Yesterday morning I photographed a juvenile Yellow Warbler in the patchy mix of yellow and gray feathers that they only sport for a short time after fledging.
My persistence and knowledge of a Willow Flycatcher's territory paid off again yesterday morning when the flycatcher flew in close and landed on a willow branch not far from where I sat in my Jeep.
There was a very cooperative first spring male Northern Harrier in a location where I photographed Short-eared Owls last year in northern Utah and for two months I could reliably see and photograph it frequently.
Little Blue Herons start off their lives with white plumage, then look piebald with blue and white fathers and finally look more "blue" as adults.
The male American Kestrel caught my eye immediately because he has such a pale chest that the spots on his chest stood out like tiny black jewels set in a field of snow white.
While I have been photographing Short-eared Owls in northern Utah I have come across this intriguing and very tame Northern Harrier over and over in the same location.
Right now on Antelope Island State Park teenaged birds are molting into their adult plumage including young Black-billed Magpies.
A few days ago I saw quite a few Sandhill Cranes starting at just past the Visitors Center for Bear River National Wildlife Refuge, in one of the farmer's fields I saw 11 of them feeding in the freshly tilled soil.
Red-tailed Hawks have the most variable plumages of North American hawks but Swainson's Hawks are also pretty variable, there are light morphs, intermediate morphs and dark morphs.
These images were taken at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Montana. There were two Willets; an adult and a juvenile, on the shoreline of the lower lake that delighted me.
A simple guide to aging Bald Eagles by their plumage development, legs and their bills with images showing the age progression.